Family member of Whitey Bulger's Tulsa victim speaks out at sentencing, Part 2

Traveler, historian, author and columnist, the Original Buffalo Dale started his weekly column with the Examiner-Enterprise nine years ago. Covering a wide variety of topics in a folksy style, he hopes to share his love of history, travel and current events with his readers.

Welcome back to the end of David Wheeler’s statement which he read at Whitey Bulger’s sentencing.

If you missed last week’s column for part 1, papers are still available at the Examiner. I also will be running the story on my website later this week (originalbuffalodale.com).

Remarks to the Court

(Part 2)

U.S. District Judge Denise Casper United States v. James Bulger: Sentencing

Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013

My family and the families of many other victims of this [point] man were victimized by the FBI — in at least three ways:

In our case, the first was, of course, my father’s cold-blooded, pointblank murder.

The second was when the FBI repeatedly abused its unchecked powers over the decades that followed. It did this by routinely denying the existence of any special relationship with this [point] man or his partner, Mr. Flemmi; and by routinely lying to the public, to family survivors, and other law enforcement officers — such as Detective Huff — all to conceal its own gross institutional misconduct.

It used its powers to plant, destroy, and withhold evidence. It stood by, watching, did nothing as three men were murdered to keep my father’s murder from being solved.

The third time my family was victimized, came at the hands of our own Department of Justice: How misleading is that — Department of Justice.

This third came in the course of my family’s federal legal case against the FBI for its role in my father’s wrongful death. When my family turned to the federal courts to compel formal answers to serious questions of institutional corruption, the FBI, counseled by its lawyers from the Justice Department in Washington D.C. — NOT the prosecutors who tried the case before your Honor — did not and could not deny the facts;

Rather, the lawyers from Washington argued that we were at fault: That we were late in bringing any claims for the FBI’s role in my father’s murder.

Our lives had been shattered, devastated — and we were to blame!

The FBI and the Justice Department believed that they could have it both ways: They believed FIRST that they could avoid any legal responsibility to my family by resorting to the technical defense of statute of limitations; and SECOND, that they could keep the public from ever learning its role in the murder of my father, the CEO of a public company and an American citizen.

To claim the statute of limitations had expired, however, the FBI had to first confess responsibility; that’s the way a statute of limitations defense operates. If a party says it did nothing wrong, it stands to reason, the limitations clock can’t start ticking!

The government also believed that it could keep the public from learning about their admission of guilt, or responsibility by burying it deep in some legal brief, where only a judge would read it.

As it turns out, the government was only half correct: As for the FIRST part, the FBI did win —

It did avoid having to answer to my family and the American public, in open court;

The Court did accept the government’s claim that my family was at fault, for moving too slow, and dismissed our case:

So, the FBI won the FIRST round .... But they won’t win the SECOND:

Everyone within the sound of my voice should understand this — That the FBI — entrusted with the greatest law enforcement powers and authority in the nation — is responsible for my father’s murder: They are as responsible for that murder as this defendant sitting here before you.

And that’s not just my opinion; that’s coming from the FBI itself! …

Here’s how the Justice Department confessed responsibility, in a court filing:

And I quote —

“The record establishes that by this date — a reasonable person would have had sufficient facts to form a belief that the FBI bore some responsibility for both the death of Roger Wheeler and the subsequent cover-up. “

Sadly, until right now — this moment — almost nobody knew that the FBI had admitted responsibility for its role in my father’s murder and the agency-wide cover-up that followed.

This official acknowledgment of responsibility appears in no FBI or Justice Department press release or any government website. No government official ever conveyed this to me or any member of my family, in person or by letter, much less made apology for it.

We tried for years for an opportunity to uncover the facts, to establish this responsibility, to call the government formally to answer, to account in a public forum.

It arrogantly refused; it sought only to protect itself and the names and all important careers of its agents and officials.

COWARDS!

When the time came to stand up and answer for the many horrific crimes of its own making — including my father’s murder — the FBI, through its lawyers in the so-called Justice Department, didn’t hesitate to hide behind this technical dodge.

It whispered its responsibility, to a federal judge, only so it wouldn’t have to answer to me, my family, and the American public.

Shame on you, Mr. Bulger, but for all your notoriety, you are a punk and don’t even matter anymore: you have turned from government-sponsored assassin into a bag of jailhouse rags waiting to be stored on cold steel. Enjoy your retirement.

Greater shame on all of those who helped you — whether FBI or private citizens — while you were on the run; those who tried to protect you from seeing this day.

Greatest shame of all on the FBI, and in particular, those agents and officials who violated their sacred oaths, who defrauded the special trust of the American people.

My family and I have nothing but contempt for you.

Next week’s column will be about my encounter with Whitey’s lawyer and his brother, both of whom I had a chance to visit with in Boston. In Manhattan a few days later I spoke with Today Show hosts Matt Lauer, Al Roker and Savannah Guthrie, and I’ll be bringing you that report also.

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